We're now accepting applications for our kindergarten to 5th grade programs! Welcome in 2018 and beat the winter doldrums with a creative and hands-on learning initiative for your students. DT Philly is a free program...

Share your passion and encourage our city's young design thinkers by signing up to speak to a class of middle or high school students for Compete 360's first-ever Designers in Schools Week (November 27 to December 1)! Our teams are now several weeks into this year's DT Philly program and have...

Fun was had by all on October 15 at the Garry Maddox - Drew Katz Celebrity Bowling Classic...Garry's 30th bowling fundraiser! 500 guests filled the 80-lane bowling alley and spent the afternoon knocking down pins, enjoying delicious food and drinks, and snapping pics with special guests Fred...

Compete 360 is seeking partners in design—professionals and grad students in design disciplines who are willing to donate a few hours of their time to help us foster a design thinking practice in Philadelphia schools. There are many ways to join the fun and advance our mission of...

Compete 360 was proud to be named a 2017 ShopRite grant recipient at last week's ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer. A commited partner to community organizations throughout the mid-atlantic states, ShopRite treated its beneficiaries to lunch and an afternoon on the 18th green after...

If you’re a teacher, student, or design mentor in DT Philly, then you probably recognize Jon Coddington, Professor of Architecture at Drexel University’s Department of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism. An advisor to and supporter of Compete 360, Jon has hosted teacher trainings and has served...

DT Philly is pleased to welcome a great cohort of new and returning teachers to this year's K-5 programs. Participants from Carnell, Disston, Ellwood, Feltonville Intermediate, Fox Chase, Shawmont, and Sheppard joined us for recent trainings and orientations, impressing us with their creativity...

On December 4 we'll be dusting off our bowling shoes and having a ball at our annual Garry Maddox - Drew Katz Bowling Classic! This event is the primary fundraising vehicle for Compete 360--supporting the K-12 programming we offer throughout the...

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DT Philly Updates

Citizens Bank Park hosted a celebration of creativity yesterday as our 6th-8th grade DT Philly teams gathered to share their work with each other and a jury of design professionals.

Over lunch, the judges heard from twelve teams on topics ranging from improving a school's recycling practices to supporting students who experience depression to designing a system to safely store and...

It’s been 17 years since Philadelphia introduced a school uniform policy with the goal of focusing students’ attention on learning and limiting problems related to students’ attire. While those goals seem worthwhile, the policy has also created challenges in some schools—challenges which have become the focus of a DT Philly project at Thomas Alva Edison High School.

What an inspiring week it has been! Today concludes Compete 360’s first-ever Designers in Schools Week, where professional designers from the fields of architecture, graphic design, landscape architecture, product design, UX design, 3D modeling, and exhibit design visited our DT Philly teams. It was exciting to see how each of these professionals uses design thinking to solve challenges in...

The weather may be getting cold but our DT Philly teams are heating up, and it’s time to recognize some of the great work they’re doing. Our first featured team this school year is Team ABC from Shawmont School. The middle school students on Team ABC have chosen to focus on the problem of bullying—a sensitive and critical issue affecting students of all ages.

It was an exciting start to the school year for Design Thinking Philadelphia as we witnessed a shift in how teachers are using the program. Once employed primarily as an extracurricular activity, more teachers are now integrating DT Philly into the classroom as a tool to promote engaged learning and critical thinking. Participating teachers hail from all disciplines including core academic...

The Wellness Warriors design team at Bartram High School was dreaming big last year when they decided to address their peers’ desire to have a fun, green space where educational and cultural activities could take place. The more people they spoke with, the more potential users they discovered…including younger students from nearby schools, and members of the surrounding community. As the...

Many DT Philly teams tell us that distractions to learning are a problem in their schools. The Striped Lions—a team of 5th graders at Laura H. Carnell School—impressed us by exploring systemic as well as behavioral factors when they tackled this problem for their 2017 DT Philly project.

The team asked, “How might we prevent students from running in the halls on the 3rd floor at Laura H...

A change of scenery can do a person good, and Team Minerva of Shawmont School started thinking big after they chose to explore ways to make their learning environment more engaging and diverse. The team noticed that students tend to participate less in class and lose focus later in the school day, especially if they don't get recess. They also noticed that their school has a lot of outdoor...